Taking action in a case of violence involving politicians, police on Saturday booked Nissing municipal committee (MC) chairperson and others on a charge of attempt to murder.The police department is a complainant in the case.
The police
have arrested eight people in connection with the Friday's violence. Besides attempt to murder, the police have booked the accused under Sections 148 (rioting with deadly weapons), 149 (unlawful assembly), 332 (hurting a public servants to deter him from his duty) and 353 (assaulting public servants on duty) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). Other accused would be arrested soon, the police have said.

On late Friday night, several people were injured when two groups led by MC chairperson Nagesh Goyal and his political opponent Subhash Singla clashed at a grain market in Nissing, about 20 km from the district headquarters. Local residents said several rounds of bullet were fired and the groups clashed for nearly two hours. They clashed with the police a well.

A journalist from the town said both factions used swords, sticks and bricks and several were injured badly. They were taken in SUVs before the police could trace them, the journalist said."The case was registered on a complaint of assistant subinspector (ASI) Daljit Singh, who was on duty at the Nissing police station," Assandh deputy superintendent of police (DSP) Shyam Lal said, adding that the matter was being investigated to ascertain the cause of clash. He said unidentified people fired bullets but there was no confirmation if anyone sustained gunshot injury.

The compound of grain market was littered with bricks, indicating the Friday night's scale of violence. "We have rounded up several people. None of the injured is in a life-threatening condition," the DSP said. Superintendent of police (SP) Shashank Anand reached the spot to take stock of the situation.

Nagesh and his brother Narinder were admitted at Kalpana Chawla Government Medical College and Hospital here.

POWER EQUATIONNagesh had defeated Singla in the last MC election. Nagesh is a nephew of Kailash Goel, the newly elected member of the Karnal municipal corporation.

A millionaire businessman, Kailash, is known for his proximity to several politicians, including Congress legislator from Gannaur (Sonepat) Kuldeep Sharma.

Sources said that suspecting that the accused may wield political clout to dilute the case, the district police authorities acted swiftly and became the complainant. It was rare that police preferred to become a complainant in a case of violence between two political groups.

"Normally, counter-cases are filed on complaints of two clashing parties. In a normal course of time, police become complainant only when a protesting mob violates rules," said a police source.